What makes a best seller

[KG Christopher]

This may have been posted already, but thought I would share it again. Very interesting talk.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Very interesting. In support of that video, a couple of writers are conducting what they call The Bestseller Experiment. Basically, they're gently gaming the system of how a book is written, trying to tease out the elements that go to make a book sell like hot cakes.

The Bestseller Experiment: can you deliberately write a blockbuster book?

They have a website and have enlisted the assistance of well-known authors. There's a free ebook to download and a weekly newsletter:

Could you write a Bestseller?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Could the person who writes a bestseller, also write a classic?

 

[Jay Aitch]

Here's a thought. If there was a formula, or method, to producing a bestselling novel, then we would all be doing it and consequently, every book sold would be a best-seller. Which would inevitably lead to there being no best-sellers by logical default.

 

[Brian Clegg]

This book, The Bestseller Code, suggests that there is an algorithmic way to judge whether a book is likely to be a bestseller (on the NYT list). There's a bit of a proviso, in that many absolute mega-bestsellers break some of its rules, but it's good at predicting bog standard ones. I cover some issues with its approach in my review (and interestingly I'd only want to read about 3 books in its top 100 list) - but it's certainly not totally fictional.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

This book, The Bestseller Code, suggests that there is an algorithmic way to judge whether a book is likely to be a bestseller (on the NYT list). There's a bit of a proviso, in that many absolute mega-bestsellers break some of its rules, but it's good at predicting bog standard ones. I cover some issues with its approach in my review (and interestingly I'd only want to read about 3 books in its top 100 list) - but it's certainly not totally fictional.

I read The Bestseller Code a couple of months ago, snagging a bargain copy on eBay. It's a pre-publication advance reading copy, which still has the pencil scribblings of some reviewer (presumably not you, Brian) in the margins to serve as reminders for their review of the guide—which I hope was more polite than the scatological remarks they failed to erase.

As a send-me-to-sleep bedtime book, it was excellent! The main things that I learned from reading it, were that best-selling books favour the use of contractions, such as they'd or we've, rather than saying they had and we have.

The other really surprising fact that the authors unearthed from trawling the data of bestsellers, was what a minuscule percentage descriptions of sexual activity take up in novels that aren't part of the erotic genre. It's the same with other raunchy subject areas like rock and roll and drug taking. These percentages startled me, as I was thinking of sexing-up the detective protagonist of my series of Cornish crime novels, perhaps giving him some bad habits.

In measuring the presence of sex, drugs and rock and roll, they found that in 5,000 novels, 500 of which were bestsellers, and concentrating on 500 different themes, that the proportion taken up by sex amounted to a thousandth of a percent.

Sex: 0.001%
Drugs: 0.003%
Rock and Roll: 0.001%

When they measured only bestsellers, the proportion of sexual content dipped to 0.0009%.

Erotica/sex stories do sell, of course, but only in a niche market. The 50 Shades series is a rare example of a story that broke through to become a bestseller.

I might have to leave my fictional detective as a celibate, herbal tea-drinking hermit who listens to New Age music!

(Rumours that my hero is autobiographical are open to speculation....)

 

[Carol Rose]

OMG...

 

[David Newrick]

I read The Bestseller Code a couple of months ago, snagging a bargain copy on eBay. It's a pre-publication advance reading copy, which still has the pencil scribblings of some reviewer (presumably not you, Brian) in the margins to serve as reminders for their review of the guide—which I hope was more polite than the scatological remarks they failed to erase.

As a send-me-to-sleep bedtime book, it was excellent! The main things that I learned from reading it, were that best-selling books favour the use of contractions, such as they'd or we've, rather than saying they had and we have.

The other really surprising fact that the authors unearthed from trawling the data of bestsellers, was what a minuscule percentage descriptions of sexual activity take up in novels that aren't part of the erotic genre. It's the same with other raunchy subject areas like rock and roll and drug taking. These percentages startled me, as I was thinking of sexing-up the detective protagonist of my series of Cornish crime novels, perhaps giving him some bad habits.

In measuring the presence of sex, drugs and rock and roll, they found that in 5,000 novels, 500 of which were bestsellers, and concentrating on 500 different themes, that the proportion taken up by sex amounted to a thousandth of a percent.

Sex: 0.001%
Drugs: 0.003%
Rock and Roll: 0.001%

When they measured only bestsellers, the proportion of sexual content dipped to 0.0009%.

Erotica/sex stories do sell, of course, but only in a niche market. The 50 Shades series is a rare example of a story that broke through to become a bestseller.

I might have to leave my fictional detective as a celibate, herbal tea-drinking hermit who listens to New Age music!

(Rumours that my hero is autobiographical are open to speculation....)

I think that not only does sex (not usually) sell a novel but that 'cosy crime' far outsells and has much more longevity than 'hard hitting' or 'real to life' crime. Interesting eh...

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It is interesting that a 'safer', less controversial and less explicit style of writing is steadily more successful than a sensational approach. The overemphasis on sex and violence within books says more about critics than it does about the author. That doesn't mean to say, that one shouldn't include them at all, as well-chosen words can go a long way to convey passion and nastiness.

The Bestseller Code is a fascinating book, but it's vital to remember when reading it that all of the findings the authors make are based entirely on analysing the data. They don't, for instance, take into account things like the cover design or the demographic of the readers.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

There's no bottling a zeitgeist.

 

[brendancody]

There's no bottling a zeitgeist.

Even less so tomorrow's zeitgeist!

 

[KG Christopher]

Vampires, you have to have vampires... and girls. 'Girl on a train', 'Vampire in a castle', that sort of thing.

 

[Jay Aitch]

And cheesecake. The Vampire Cheesecake on the Train at Midnight

 

[KG Christopher]

There's no bottling a zeitgeist.

If anyone can bottle a zeitgeist, I am sure it's you @Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

 

[Marc Joan]

And if anyone can drink it...

 

[Sarah Louise Dean]

This book, The Bestseller Code, suggests that there is an algorithmic way to judge whether a book is likely to be a bestseller (on the NYT list). There's a bit of a proviso, in that many absolute mega-bestsellers break some of its rules, but it's good at predicting bog standard ones. I cover some issues with its approach in my review (and interestingly I'd only want to read about 3 books in its top 100 list) - but it's certainly not totally fictional.

bog-standard-bestseller - there's no shame in being one of those